Index

Note: page numbers followed by “f” refer to figures.

• Abel, Alan, 299, 309
• Abortion, campaign against, 107–114
• Acosta, Jim, 201, 202f, 203, 203f, 207
• Adamic, Lada A., 240
• Advertising, native, 87–92
• Advertising, online, 6, 124, 125, 333
• Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), 241
• Agents, 79, 79f, 82, 84
• Agonistic pluralism, theory of, 46–48, 51
• Agonistic politics, 191
• Albright, Jonathan, 137
• Alcibiades, 245
• Allcott, Hunt, 166
• Alphabet, Inc., 127
• Alt-right, Reddit and, 179, 183
• American News LLC, 229
• America’s 1st Freedom, 101
• Anonymity, memetics and, 194–195
• Antiabortion video, 107–114
• Appleton, William Henry, 156
• Arab Spring, 80–81
• Aral, Sinan, 167
• Army of Jesus, 194–195, 195f
• The Associated Press Stylebook, 134–135
• The Atlantic, 81
• AT&T, 126
• Audience, narrowing of, 285

• Babylon Berlin, 153
• Bakshy, Eytan, 240
• Bandwagon effects, 225
• Barad, Karen, 97
• Barbie Liberation Organization (BLO) (Yes Men), 300–301
• Barnum, P. T., 267, 269, 289
• Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, 145
• Bateson, Gregory, 276
• BBC, 75, 77f, 81, 341–342
• Bee, Samantha, 318, 319
• Belief
• contradictory information and, 237–238
• from exposure and repetition, 236
• in fake news, as lazy luxury, 157
• intrinsic and extrinsic reasons, 248
• knowledge base and, 237, 241
• NRA axioms about journalism and mainstream media, 98–100
• propaganda and, 25–26
• source credibility and, 238–242
• truth bias, 236
• Bell System, 126
• Benjamin, Walter, 276
• Bennett, James Gordon, 267
• Berger, Jonah, 225
• Berinsky, Adam J., 240, 241
• Bernays, Edward, 22, 25–26
• Bias
• awareness of, 249
• CMP antiabortion video comments and, 111–114
• confirmation, 224, 249
• gatekeeping, biased, 101
• NRA axiom of ideologically biased media, 98–99
• partisan, 239–240
• truth bias, 236
• Bichlbaum, Andy. See Yes Men
• Binary logic, 251
• Black box systems, 136–137
• Blair, Jayson, 154
• The Blaze, 108–109
• Bonanno, Mike. See Yes Men
• Bongino, Dan, 99–100
• Borowitz, Andy, 316
• Boston Marathon bombing (2013), 81, 181–182
• Bots, 169, 172, 174, 184, 194, 344
• “Bowling Green Disaster,” 351
• boyd, danah, 4, 83, 362
• Brain, limitations of, 250–251
• Braman, Donald, 238
• Branco, Antonio, 210
• Branding logos, 206
• Brashears, Matthew, 169
• Brashier, Nadia M., 237
• Brazile, Donna, 318
• Breitbart, 1, 3, 355, 364
• Britain, 128, 285–287
• Broderick, Ryan, 82
• Brown, Wendy, 24
• Brunton, Finn, 336
• Bugeja, Michael, 346
• Bullock, John G., 157
• Bush, George W., 38, 304, 310, 319–320
• Bush, Vannevar, 354–355
• BuzzFeed, 283

• Cambridge Analytica scandal, 125
• Camp, Lee, 318, 319
• Canada, 128
• Candid Camera (TV), 353–354
• Canetti, Elias, 276
• Cannon, Tyrone D., 236–237
• Cantril, Hadley, 276
• Capital, civic, 20
• Capital Gazette shootings, 209
• Capitalism, digital, 342–345
• Carey, James, 269
• Carvin, Andy, 80–81
• Censorship, 51, 252. See also First Amendment
• Center for Medical Progress (CMP), 108–114
• Central Park Zoo animal riot hoax, 267
• Cernovich, Mike, 183
• Channels, defined, 169
• Channels of information, open, 157
• Charles II, 285–287
• Chen, Adrian, 185
• Circuit of media study, 3–8
• Circulation numbers, 2–3
• Citizen empowerment strategies, 137–138
• Civic capital, 20
• Civic dispositions, demolition of, 23–25
• Clickbait, 74, 74f, 225, 245, 335–336
• Clinton, Chelsea, 165
• Clinton, Hillary. See also Election of 2016, U.S. presidential; #Pizzagate
• 2016 popular vote count, 6
• “basket of deplorables,” 193, 194f
• “Bernie or Hillary,” 197, 198f
• “Crooked Hillary,” 195
• deals with news outlets, 318
• email scandal, 3, 61, 367
• immigration policy and, 196
• “Lock her up,” 61, 192
• “Madam President” Newsweek cover, 1
• reaction to negative coverage, 317–319
• Reddit group, 183
• Rihanna’s endorsement of, 170
• Satanism accusations against, 165, 172–175, 195, 195f
• vote-by-text tweet, 77, 78f
• weapons sales claim, 56
• “Closed world” assumption, 251
• Cloud, Dana, 367
• CNN, 98, 99, 364, 364f
• Coddington, Mark, 88
• Coders, 343
• Cognitive dissonance, 224
• Cognitive miser approach, 224, 225
• Cognitive shortcuts, 224–225
• Cohen, James, 343
• Coherency gaps, 62–63
• The Colbert Report, 316
• Coleman, Stephen, 50
• Comet Ping Pong pizzeria. See #Pizzagate
• Comey, James, 351
• Computers, development of, 354
• Conditions of possibility, 21–22
• Confirmation bias, 224, 249
• Congressional investigations, 137
• Connection, false, 74, 74f
• Conscience, societal, 150
• Conspiracy theories. See also #Pizzagate
• 2016 election fixed for Clinton, 1
• etic veracity claims and, 58
• evidence, separation from, 273
• impact of, 57
• in-group belief and label of, 278–279
• as mass accusations, 276
• Parkland school shootings, 19
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 147
• secret knowledge and, 277–278
• social gratifications for, 226–227
• theory in, 273–280
• Constitution, U.S.
• First Amendment, 100, 146, 157, 214
• media disregard for, in NRA beliefs, 100
• Second Amendment, 100, 102
• “Constitution 101,” 229
• Consumer guides, 137
• Consumption, desocialized, 25
• Content boundaries, blurred, 88
• Content moderation. See Platform moderation
• Context, false, 74, 76f
• Contradictory information, old and new, 237–238
• Conway, Kellyanne, 229, 351
• Cook, John, 84
• Cosby, Bill, 73f
• Counterfeit news, 91–92
• Counterpublics, 168, 174
• Creation, as phase of information disorder, 79–80, 80f
• Credibility of sources, 238–242, 246–247, 361–369
• Critical thinking, 248–249, 251, 311–312, 368
• Croly, David Goodman, 265–266
• Cronkite, Walter, 155, 315
• Crowdsourcing, 81, 139, 181–182
• Culkin, Macaulay, 212, 214f
• Customer service approach, 329

• D’Acci, Julie, 4
• The Daily Caller, 367
• The Daily Show, 315–316
• Daleiden, David, 109
• Darwin, Charles, 156
• Data and Society Research Institute, 114
• D.C. Clothesline website, 1
• Debord, Guy, 345
• Debunking, 59–60, 82, 83–84
• Debunking Handbook (Cook and Lewandowsky), 84
• Decision-making, 51, 80–84
• Deconstructing Beck (Yes Men), 302
• Deep learning technologies, 247
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 40
• Defoe, Daniel, 268, 287
• De Jaeger, Charles, 341
• Deleuze, Gilles, 276
• Democracy
• consensus-based, 45–51
• failing of the People, 289–290
• illiberal and immature, 344
• media literacy and, 137
• newspapers and, 268
• public infrastructure and, 131
• threat to, 56, 133, 139, 235, 316
• truth-based, 50
• Weimar Republic and, 153–154
• Democratic National Committee (DNC) WikiLeaks e-mail release, 165–166, 170–175
• Denver Guardian, 2–3
• Derakhshan, Hossein, 71, 79
• Dicks, Thomas, 288
• Diffractive analysis, 97–98
• Diffusion, 167, 168–169
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 36
• Digital visual literacy, 39
• Dimbleby, Richard, 341
• Disbelief, spread of, 26. See also Belief; Trust and distrust of “the media”
• Disclosures, 89–91
• Dishonesty, 36, 99–100, 110. See also Falsehood
• Disinformation. See also Information disorder
• agents of, 82, 84
• definitions of, 71, 72f, 145–146
• hate propaganda and, 145–151
• history of nonfactual information, 134–135
• Disorganized propaganda, 22–26
• Distribution phase, 79–80, 80f
• Distribution practices, technology and, 5–6
• Distrust. See Trust and distrust of “the media”
• Dix, John A., 267
• Doctorow, Cory, 365
• Dow Chemical, 304–305, 312–313
• Dundes, Alan, 61

• East StratCom team (EU), 139
• Ecker, Ullrich K. H., 59, 62, 240
• Editorial content conflated with news, 228–229
• Effects models, 165–166
• Efficiency, symbolic, 21–24
• Election of 1864, U.S. presidential, 265–266
• Election of 2012, U.S. presidential, 191, 192
• Election of 2016, U.S. presidential. See also Trump, Donald
• Facebook and, 123
• fake news system supported on both sides, 317–319
• memetic thinking and, 58
• Newsweek alternate covers, 1
• political memes and, 191–197
• popular vote count, 6
• rise of “fake news” and, 289
• Russian disinformation campaign, 136
• vote-by-text tweet, 77, 78f
• Election strategies, 167–168
• Ellul, Jacques, 19–20, 22, 23, 25
• Emic folkloric frame, 60–63
• Emotion, 225–226
• “Enemy of the people” rhetoric, 201, 204, 214–216, 227
• Entertainment, 25, 228
• Entropy, 169, 170
• Epistemological education, 248–252
• Ernst, Jonathan, 209
• Error correction in social networks, 169–170
• Etic veracity claims, 56–60
• Eubanks, Virginia, 343
• European Commission, 128
• European Union (EU), 129, 139–140, 252
• Evidence
• falsifiabililty and, 274
• hypotheses and, 249
• photographic, 33–36
• technology and, 252
• theory and, 273, 277, 279–280
• Expert credibility, perceived, 238–239
• Exposure effect prediction models, 165–166

• Fabricated content category, 77, 78f
• Facebook
• AI techniques, promises of, 329
• Army of Jesus, 194–195, 195f
• Bernie Sanders’ Dank Meme Stash (BSDMS), 197
• Cambridge Analytica scandal, 125
• clickbait, incentivizing and deincentivizing of, 335–336
• content moderation and, 330
• fact-checking, use of, 329
• Instagram visual rhetoric and, 207–209
• journalism, impact on, 125–126
• journalism accelerator, 127
• as media company vs. technology company, 124
• monopoly power of, 123–125, 126–127, 128
• public service journalism tax proposal, 127–128
• regulation of, 128–131
• Russian content, 136
• self-regulation, flagging, and transparency, 138–139, 249, 329
• “Stopping Fake News” (Channel 4 News FactCheck blog), 223
• Fact-checking
• as antidote, 156–157
• coherency gaps and, 62
• desire for, 247
• distrust of, 366–367
• evaluation of, 248
• hate propaganda and, 149
• librarians and, 248
• problems with, 59, 367
• Facts
• brain limitations and, 250
• choosing or cherry-picking, 23, 101, 249
• debates over status of, 45, 285
• denunciation of, 19
• disdain for, 284–285
• knowledge patterns, 250
• misleading or nonfacts, 6
• NRA on, 101
• post-truth and, 45, 48–50
• previously established, failure to remember, 355
• relationship with, 354
• rise of empiricism and, 268
• theorizing and, 274
• “Fake” as power, 46
• Fake news
• avoidance of term, 71
• beyond misinformation, 1–2
• as broad category, 165
• “circuit of media study” approach to, 3–8
• circulation numbers, 2–3
• definitions of, 2, 135, 245, 311
• effects models and, 165–166
• as existential threat, 332, 333, 336
• geared at getting “clicks,” 284
• “good” vs. “bad,” 316–320
• as human problem, 137
• as internet problem and news problem, 135
• labeling, 365
• narrow audiences and, 285
• as national security challenge, 137–139
• as ontological label, 95, 98, 102
• prehistory of, 263–269, 352–355
• as propaganda, 21, 25–26
• rise of, 20, 289
• as structural problem, 125
• systems taken advantage by, 331–332
• teaching, 351–358
• virus compared to, 332
• weaponization of, 45–46, 49–50, 202–204, 343–345
• “False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical ‘News’ Sources” (Zimdars), 362–369
• Falsehood
• accumulated over years, 250
• emic folkloric frame and, 60–63
• etic assertions of, 56–60
• spreading faster than truth, 167
• true information outperformed by, 344
• Faludi, Susan, 165
• Fazio, Lisa K., 237
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 88, 91
• Feminist standpoint theory, 58–59
• Fernbach, Philip, 347
• Festinger, Leon, 224
• Feyerabend, Paul, 279
• Financial incentives for fake news, 245, 247, 252
• Fingerprints, 173–175
• Firehose propaganda, 23
• First Amendment, 100, 146, 157, 214
• First Draft, 83
• Flagg, James Montgomery, 205
• Flagging initiatives, 138, 249
• Flexible visuality, 32–38
• Folkloric frame, 60–63
• Foreign governments, leaks by, 83
• Forgetting, privilege of, 355, 358
• Foucault, Michel, 276
• Fox News, 113, 149, 319, 355
• Frame-checking, 367
• Framing, 60–63, 101
• France, 165
• Frankfurt, Harry, 245
• Franklin, Benjamin, 134, 263–265, 268
• Franklin, James, 263
• Freud, Sigmund, 276
• Funding, public, 127–128, 368

• Gainor, Dan, 101
• #Gamergate, 182–183
• Game theory, 167–170
• Gandhi, Mohandas, 303
• Gatekeeping, biased, 101
• Gawker, 185
• Geek masculinity, 180–181
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU, 129, 252
• Gentzkow, Matthew, 166
• Gerber, Alan S., 157
• Germany, 153
• Gladstone, Brooke, 285
• Gladstone, Eric, 169
• Goldman, Adam, 57
• Goldstein, David, 236
• Goldwater, Barry, 192
• Goldwater Institute, 357
• Google
• black box technologies, 136
• EU and, 129
• flagging initiative, 138
• Jihad Watch and, 149
• monopoly power and, 124
• News Initiative, 127
• PageRank algorithm, 246–247
• public service journalism tax proposal, 127–128
• removal of fraudulent providers, 333
• reverse image searches, 39
• Russian content, 136
• SEO and, 335
• Graham, Lindsey, 137
• Great Moon Hoax, 267, 287–289, 353
• Guattari, Félix, 276
• Guess, Andrew, 235

• Hamilton, John M., 342
• Hannity, Sean, 364
• Harcup, Tony, 96
• Harding, Sandra, 58–59
• Hasher, Lynn, 236
• Hate speech and hate propaganda, 145–151. See also Reddit
• Hays, William Harrison, 136
• Hays Code, 136
• Hemmer, Nicole, 98
• Herschel, John, 267, 287–288
• Heuristics. See Psychological factors in fake news
• High-conflict news programs, 228
• Hill, Seth J., 157
• Hindenburg, Paul von, 153
• Hitler, Adolf, 153–154, 214, 215f
• Hoaxes. See also Yes Men
• CNN pornography airing, 364, 364f
• Great Moon Hoax, 267, 287–289, 353
• history of, 263–269
• Horner site, 317
• news and, 4
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 147
• “Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino” (BBC), 341–342
• Hofstadter, Richard, 276
• Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 30
• Hone, Philip, 288
• Horner, Paul, 317
• Hosmer, George W., 267
• Housholder, Elizabeth E., 239
• Huber, Gregory A., 157
• Huffman, Steve, 184
• Human connections, reestablishing, 347
• Hurricane Sandy, 81
• Hypocrisy, 99–100
• Hypotheses, 249
• Hypotheticals, danger of, 275–276

• Identity, fake news as, 95, 98, 102, 204
• Identity politics and conspiracy theory, 279
• Ideology and narrative, stitching of, 193
• “If true,” 268, 275–276
• Illusory-truth effect, 236
• Images, digital. See Instagram, visual war on journalism on; Visuality
• Immigration, 196–197, 196f
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), US, 75, 78f
• Imposter content category, 75, 77f
• Incitement, 146, 148
• India, 147, 148
• Individualized, reception-based “solutions,” 361–362, 364–369
• Indonesia, 145, 147
• Information disorder
• categories of, 73–78
• complexity of, 72
• elements (agents, messages, interpreters), 79, 79f
• misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, 71, 72f
• phases (creation, production, distribution), 79–80, 80f
• reporting, issues for, 80–84
• Information overload, 354–355
• Information theory, 169–170, 172–174
• Infowars, 138, 316–317, 355
• Infrastructure, digital, 126
• Instagram, visual war on journalism on
• counter-memes and conclusions, 213–216, 215f
• creating an other (stage 1), 204–206, 205f
• distrust (stage 2), 206–209, 206f, 208f
• enemies and consequences (stage 3), 209–210, 210f, 211f
• “enemy of the people” rhetoric, 201, 204, 214–216
• #fakenews feed, 201–202
• four stages of rhetoric, 204
• threat, journalists as, 211–213, 213f, 214f
• Trump’s weaponization of phrase “fake news,” 202–204
• Instagram and political memes, 194
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 215–216
• The Intercept, 319
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 146
• Internet as disruptor, 134
• Interpreters, 79, 79f
• Irony, 316–317
• Islam, 145, 147, 148, 149, 265

• Jacobs, Ian, 341
• Jenkins-Smith, Hank, 238
• Jihad Watch, 149
• Johnson, Ben, 289
• Johnson, Lyndon, 192
• Jones, Alex, 316, 318
• Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 153
• Journalism. See also Instagram, visual war on journalism on; News
• “enemy of the people” rhetoric, 201, 204, 214–216, 227
• Facebook and Google’s impact on, 124–125
• history of hoaxes and satire in, 263–269
• information disorder issues and decision-making, 80–84
• NRA view of, 98–102
• public service journalism tax and trust fund, 127–128

• Kahan, Dan M., 238
• Kant, Emmanuel, 274
• Keegan, Brian, 168
• Kendall, Lori, 180
• Kennedy, John F., 155
• Keyes, Nelson, 263
• Kindergarten Cop (film), 212, 214f
• Kittler, Friedrich, 276
• Knowledge base, increasing, 241
• Kotaku, 182

• Laing, R. D., 276
• LaMarre, Heather L., 239
• LaPierre, Wayne, 96, 99, 101
• Latour, Bruno, 24
• Lazer, David, 168
• Leaks by foreign governments, 83
• Leeds, Titan, 264
• Legacy news industries. See Journalism; Newspaper industry
• Le Pen, Marine, 165
• L’Estrange, Roger, 286–287, 289
• Lewandowsky, Stephan, 59, 62, 84, 240
• Lewis, Rebecca, 82, 228, 347
• Liberal Society, 229
• LifeSiteNews, 108–110
• Lim, Zheng Wei, 166
• Limbaugh, Rush, 318
• Lin, Yu-Ru, 168
• Lincoln, Abraham, 266
• Ling, Richard, 166
• Lipmann, Walter, 37
• Lists of “fake news,” viral, 361–369
• Literacy. See Media literacy; Visual literacy
• Locke, Richard Adams, 267, 288, 289
• “Lock her up” slogan, 61, 192
• Loesch, Dana, 99
• Logic, binary, 251
• Logic, mathematical, 249
• Loving v. Virginia, 266

• Machine learning technologies, 247
• Macron, Emmanuel, 165
• Madrigal, Alexis, 81
• “Make America great again” (#MAGA), 192
• Malinformation, defined, 71, 72f
• Man-bats (Vespertilio-homos) hoax, 267
• Manipulated content category, 75–77, 78f
• Marchi, Regina, 227
• Marginalized communities and hate propaganda, 146
• Margolin, Drew, 168
• Marketplace of ideas, 157, 369
• Marsh, Elizabeth J., 237
• Marwick, Alice, 82, 228, 347
• Masculinity, geek, 180–181
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 344
• Mass individualized media, 285
• Mass media, centralized, 22
• Master narratives, 147–148
• Mathematical logic, 249
• McCarthy, Joseph, 277
• McLeod, Kembrew, 62
• Media literacy
• consumer guides, 137
• digital capitalism and, 345
• insufficiency of, 346
• psychological factors and, 223, 229–230
• WhatsApp and, 345–346
• Media Reform Coalition (Britain), 128
• Melzer, Scott, 102
• Memes. See also Instagram, visual war on journalism on
• in 2012 presidential campaign, 191, 192
• in 2016 presidential campaign, 191–197
• Army of Jesus (Hillary as Satan), 194–195, 195f
• “basket of deplorables,” 193, 194f
• “Bernie or Hillary,” 197, 198f
• definitions of, 191
• “Don’t Mess with TX Border Patrol,” 196–197, 196f
• memetic thinking, 58–59, 61–62
• as metonyms, 192, 193
• political slogans and, 192
• as stitching device, 193–197
• “Memex Revisited” (Bush), 354–355
• Memoirs of My Nervous Illness (Schreber), 276
• Message element of information disorder, 79, 79f
• Messing, Solomon, 240
• Milkman, Katherine L., 225
• Milner, Ryan M., 58
• Milton, John, 157
• Miscegenation (Croly and Wakeman), 265–266
• Misinformation. See also Information disorder
• confusing webs of, 365
• defined, 71, 72f
• emotions and spread of, 225–226
• Facebook and, 124
• reporting issues and decision-making, 80–84
• Misleading content category, 74, 75f
• Moderators. See Platform moderation
• A Modest Proposal (Swift), 310
• Monopoly power, 123–131
• Moon hoax, 267, 287–289, 353
• Morelli, Giovanni, 39
• Morozov, Evgeny, 139, 344, 345
• Mother Jones, 108–109
• Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) film rating system, 136
• Mouffe, Chantal, 46–48, 50, 51
• Mueller, Robert, 165, 352, 356
• Muir, David, 36
• Muslims, 145, 147, 148, 149, 265
• Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, 153

• National Enquirer, 317
• National Geographic, 31
• National Rifle Association (NRA)
• about, 96
• axioms about journalism and mainstream media, 98–100
• diffractive analysis of, 97–98
• “fake news” as identity and practice for, 95, 98, 102
• mediatization of, 96
• on practices responsible for “fake news,” 101
• National Union of Journalists (Britain), 128
• Native advertising, 87–92
• Natural News, 363, 365–366
• Nazis, 153
• Neoliberalism, statist, 24
• Nerd masculinity, 180–181
• Networks and intermedia agenda setting, 168–169
• Neutrality as contingent, 46
• News. See also Journalism
• belief in unreliability of, 154–155
• blurred line between entertainment and, 228
• editorial content, conflation with, 228–229
• fake news as internet problem vs. news problem and, 135
• fake news in relation to, 4–5
• Hitler’s and Trump’s attacks on, 153–154
• open channels of information and not undermining, 156–157
• partisan vs. mainstream, perceived credibility of, 239–240
• soft and high-conflict programs, 228
• NewsBusters, 318
• Newspaper industry, 124–125, 268–269, 352
• New York Herald, 267
• New York Sun, 266–267, 287–288, 353
• New York Times
• “All the news that’s fit to print,” 155
• beliefs on deception by, 154–155
• CMP antiabortion video comments, 108–114
• corrections, 154
• guide for citizens, 137
• Iraq weapons of mass destruction error, 228
• ®^TMark (Yes Men) and, 309
• T Brand Studio and native advertising, 87–88
• Trump on, 154
• Nissenbaum, Asaf, 192
• Noir, Colion, 100
• Noise, 169, 170, 252
• Nonfactual information, history of, 134–135
• Notarized images, 40
• NRATV, 96. See also National Rifle Association
• Nunes, Devin, 57, 356
• Nyhan, Brendan, 235

• Oates, Titus, 285–287
• Obama, Barack
• birthplace and birther conspiracy, 21, 228, 237–238
• fake news as threat and, 133
• immigration policy and, 196
• inauguration photo, 36
• media as “whore” for, 207, 208f
• theory behind conspiracy theories about, 274–275
• wiretap claim against, 57
• Obamacare (Affordable Care Act), 241
• Objectivity
• bias vs., 113
• democracy and, 47
• news and, 4
• New York Times and, 112
• photography and, 30, 32, 40
• political, absence of, 48, 51
• power relations and, 46
• O’Keefe, James, 110
• Oliver, John, 318, 319
• 100 Percent Fed Up, 365
• The Onion, 316
• O’Reilly, Bill, 154–155
• Oremus, Will, 317
• Outrage, 19

• PageRank algorithm (Google), 246–247
• Panorama (BBC), 341–342
• Pao, Ellen, 184, 185
• Parakilas, Sandy, 139
• Parasitic content, 331–337
• Parkland school shootings, Florida, 19
• Parody category, 73. See also Satire
• Participatory transparency, 138–139
• Partisan bias, 239–240
• Pattern matching, 250, 318
• Paul, Christopher, 180–181
• Payne, Keith B., 237
• Pedophile ring rumor. See #Pizzagate
• Pennsylvania Gazette, 263, 264
• Pennycook, Gordon, 236–237
• Petrified man hoax, 268
• Philolaus, 273–275
• Photography. See Visuality
• Pickard, Victor, 133
• Pierson, Paul, 140
• Pillsbury, Parker, 266
• #Pizzagate
• belief in, 290, 315
• flexible visuality and, 35
• “if true,” danger of, 275
• “self-investigation,” 7
• spread of, 283–284
• veracity claims vs. folkloric approach to, 57–62
• Welch shooting, 7, 283, 290
• Planned Parenthood, 107–114
• Platform moderation
• culpability of platforms, 333–334
• prospects, 336–337
• spam, SEO, and clickbait, 334–336
• tendency toward content moderation, 329–330
• violations and contested behavior vs. parasitic, tactical content, 330–333
• Platforms, age of
• audience–provider relationship and, 342
• education efforts and beyond, 345–346
• evolution of platforms and capitalist characteristics, 342–343
• human connections, reestablishing, 347
• weaponization of fake news in, 343–345
• Plausible deniability, 193–194
• Pluralism, agonistic, 46–48, 51
• Podesta, John, 61, 165, 172, 318
• Poe, Edgar Allan, 30
• Poe, Nathan, 59
• Poe’s Law, 59
• Political Insider, 74f
• Political slogans, 192
• PolitiFact, 235
• Pooley, Eric, 351
• Pooley, Jefferson, 276
• Poor Richard’s Almanack (Franklin), 264
• Popish Plot, 285–287
• Popper, Karl, 279
• Pornography, 331
• Posobiec, Jack, 34–35
• Post-political zeitgeist, 47–48
• Post-truth era, 45, 48–50
• Power relations, 26, 46, 47
• Pranks! (RE/Search), 299–300, 309
• Pratte, Richard, 24
• Presidential elections. See entries at election
• Price, Sarah, 307
• PR industry, 312
• Production phase, 79–80, 80f
• Production practices, technology and, 5–6
• Profitability and impact on content, 4–5. See also Advertising, online
• Propaganda
• belief and, 25–26
• disorganized, 22–26
• dominant narrative, relationship to, 22
• fake news as, 21
• firehose, 23
• flexible visuality and, 34–35
• inconsistent news sources and, 26
• news organizations as propagandists, 212
• political function and, 20
• positive, 21
• The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, 147
• “Pro-truth,” 49–50
• Psychological factors in fake news
• cognitive dissonance and confirmation biases, 224
• cognitive shortcuts, 224–225
• editorial content conflated with news coverage, 228–229
• emotion, 225–226
• media literacy efforts and, 223, 229–230
• mistrust in media, 227–228
• social gratifications of sharing, 226–227
• Public funding, 127–128, 368
• Publics, formation of, 168
• Putin, Vladimir, 26
• Pythagoreans, 273–274

• Queen for a Day (TV), 353–354
• Quinn, Zoe, 182

• Radio, 153–154, 353
• Rand, David G., 236–237
• “Rape Melania” images, 33–34, 38
• Reagle, Joseph, 180
• Realism, photographic, 30–32
• “Reality TV, Fake News, and Media Literacy in the 21st Century” seminar, 352–358
• Reception-based, individualized “solutions,” 361–362, 364–369
• Redacted Tonight, 318
• Reddit
• about, 179
• administrators, moderators, and free speech vs. restrictions, 184–186
• alt-right and, 179, 183
• Boston Marathon bombing and, 81, 181–182
• #Gamergate, 182–183
• /r/KotakuInAction (KIA), 182
• /r/The_Donald (TD), 183–184
• techno/cyberlibertarianism on, 182, 184
• toxic geek masculinity, culture of, 180–181
• voting system, 181
• Red State, 363
• Regulation
• digital capitalism norms, 345
• of Facebook, Google, and monopoly power, 128–131
• of hate speech, 146–147
• self-regulation, 135–139, 149–150
• as threat to truthful news, 157
• Trump administration, regulatory approach of, 24–25
• Reifler, Jason, 235
• Representation, critique of, 24
• Resonance, 60–61
• Reuters, 31, 36–37
• Reverse image searches, 39
• Revolution, American, 147
• RH Reality Check (Rewire), 108
• Riecken, Henry, 224
• Rihanna, 170
• Rivers, Damian J., 345
• Rodgers, Aaron, 361
• Rohe, Karl, 168–169
• Romney, Mitt, 192
• Ross, Andrew S., 345
• Roy, Deb, 167
• Royce, Josiah, 280
• ®^TMark (Yes Men), 301–302, 309
• Rushkoff, Douglas, 343
• Russian disinformation, 136, 319

• Sanders, Bernie, 183, 192, 197, 198f, 361
• Sanders, Sarah Huckabee, 206–207, 206f
• Satanic panics, 61–62
• Satanism accusations against Clinton, 165, 172–175, 195, 195f. See also #Pizzagate
• Satire, 73, 73f, 263–269. See also Yes Men
• Schachter, Stanley, 224
• Schreber, Daniel Paul, 276
• Schudson, Michael, 342
• Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 212, 214f
• Scientific method, 249
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO), 247, 335
• Search engines, 6, 246–247. See also Google
• Second Amendment, 100, 102
• Self-investigation, 7
• Self-regulation, 135–139, 149–150
• Servin, Jacques. See Yes Men
• 70news.wordpress.com, 6
• Shane, Scott, 83
• Shannon, Claude, 169, 172–174
• Sharing
• disorganized propaganda and, 23
• large circulation, 2–3
• social gratifications of, 226–227
• without reading, 361
• Sherrod, Shirley, 110
• Shifman, Limor, 191, 192
• Shitposting, 59
• Signal/noise relationship, 169, 170
• Silverman, Craig, 56–57, 229
• SimCopter hack (Yes Men), 300, 308, 309
• Skaggs, Joey, 299, 309
• Skepticism, photographic, 30–32
• Skocpol, Theda, 140
• Slogans, political, 192
• Sloman, Steven, 347
• Snopes, 367
• Social endorsement as heuristic, 225
• Social gratifications of sharing, 226–227
• Sociality, suppression of, 25
• Social justice warrior (SJW) activists, 182–183, 184
• Social media. See also Facebook; Platform moderation
• credibility of familiar persons, 241–242
• crowdsourcing from, 81
• error correction and, 169–170
• number of shares on, 2–3
• production and distribution, role in, 6
• Social networks, error correction in, 169–170
• Socolow, Michael J., 276
• Soft news programs, 228
• Software for image authenticity detection, 40
• Solutionism, technological, 139–140
• Soros, George, 35
• Source credibility and belief, 238–242
• “Spaghetti-Harvest in Ticino” (BBC), 341–342
• Spam, 336
• Spectacle, 345
• Spencer, Richard, 35
• Spencer, Robert, 149
• Spicer, Sean, 36
• “Sponsored” label, 89–90
• Srnicek, Nick, 342–343
• Stahl, Lesley, 38
• Standpoint theory, 58–59
• Starbird, Kate, 134
• Statist neoliberalism, 24
• Stewart, Jon, 315–316
• Stimulation, constant, 346
• Stinchfield, Grant, 98, 99–100
• Stitching device, memes as, 193–197
• Stone, Jim, 1
• “Stopping Fake News” (Channel 4 News FactCheck blog), 223
• Stryker, Cole, 193
• Sulzberger, A. G., 215
• Sunstein, Cass, 138
• Survival, rhetoric of, 88–89, 92
• Survivors Village, 296
• Swift, Jonathan, 310
• Swire, Briony, 240
• Symbolic efficiency, 21–24

• Tactical content, 330–333
• Tandoc, Edson C., Jr., 166
• Tavernise, Sabrina, 284
• Taxes, 127–128
• Teaching fake news, 351–358
• Techno/cyberlibertarianism, 182, 184
• Technological solutionism, 139–140
• Technology
• circuit of media study and, 5–6
• history of, 352–355
• history of nonfactual information and, 134
• platforms, evolution of, 342
• Television, development of, 353
• Television news. See CNN; Fox News; News
• Territorial Enterprise, 268
• “Textiles of the Future” (Finland, 2001), 303–304
• “Thinking with others,” 347
• ThinkProgress, 363
• Time, 31, 201, 203f
• Tipping points, 83–84
• Toppino, Thomas, 236
• Transparency initiatives, 137–139
• Tribal loyalties, 150
• Trolls and content moderation, 331
• Trotter, Gayle, 99
• Trump, Donald. See also Election of 2016, U.S. presidential
• endorsements, fake, 3, 56, 77
• “enemy of the people” rhetoric, 201, 204, 214–216, 227
• “fake news” as epithet and, 45, 49–50, 56, 154, 202–203
• fake news as news problem and, 135
• fake news as threat and, 133
• Hitler compared to, 214, 215f
• hypotheticals, 275–276
• immigration policy and, 196–197
• inauguration aerial photo, 36–37
• #MAGA, 192
• memes and, 193
• on New York Times, 154
• reaction to negative coverage, 317–319
• Reddit and, 179
• slogans, 192
• Twitter, use of, 153–154, 351–352
• wiretap claim against Obama, 57
• “you” accusation, 204–206, 205f
• Trump, Donald, Jr., 193, 194f
• Trump, Melania, 33–34, 38
• Trump administration, 22–23, 24–25
• Trust and distrust of “the media”
• CMP antiabortion video and, 107–114
• decline in trust, 227
• Instagram visual rhetoric and, 206–209
• political actors and, 227–228
• Poynter Media Trust survey, 107
• reasons for, 5
• Trust fund for public service journalism, 127–128
• Truth
• crisis of how we recognize, 365
• empiricist ideal in newspapers, 268–269
• etic claims of, 56–60
• falsehood spreading faster than, 167
• “if true,” 268, 275–276
• reality, our trouble with, 285
• Truth bias, 236
• “Truth era,” impossibility of, 48–50
• Tsfati, Yariv, 227
• Twain, Mark, 263, 268–269
• Twitter
• emotionally charged tweets, 225–226
• publics and, 168
• Russian content, 136
• social gratifications of sharing, 226
• spread of false vs. true stories, 344
• Trump’s use of, 153–154, 351–352
• tweet swarm case studies (Satanism accusations and WikiLeaks), 165–175
• Twitter bombs, 247
• verification of tweets, 81
• Tworek, J. S., 342

• Union Carbide India (Dow Chemical), 304–305, 312–313
• United Media Publishing, 361, 363
• United Nations, 215–216
• University of Iowa, 307–308
• University of North Carolina (UNC) free speech policy, 357
• Upworthy, 363

• Values-based approach, 347
• Vamos, Igor. See Yes Men
• Violentacrez, 185
• Viral “fake news” lists, 361–369
• Visuality. See also Instagram, visual war on journalism on
• defined, 32
• digital visual literacy, 38–39
• flexible, 32–38
• image authenticity detection software, 40
• political visual discourse and, 29
• realism and skepticism, photographic, 30–32
• Visual literacy, 38–39
• Vosoughi, Soroush, 167, 344

• Wakeman, George, 265–266
• Walker, Jesse, 277
• Wang, Song, 168–169
• Warner, Michael, 168, 174
• Washington, George, 263
• Washington, Stacy, 101
• Washington Free Beacon, 365
• Washington Post “Policies and Standards,” 137
• Watts, Duncan, 248–249
• Waveform, communication as a, 97
• Wave Hill website, 156
• Weimar Republic, 153
• Welch, Edgar, 57–60, 283, 290
• Welles, Orson, 276
• Wells, Chris, 168–169
• WhatsApp, 345–346
• Whittle, Bill, 98
• WikiLeaks Democratic National Committee (DNC) e-mail release, 165–166, 170–175
• Williams, Brian, 206f, 207, 318
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 46
• Wood, Michael J., 227
• World Class Investigative Truth, 1
• World Press Photo competition, 39
• World Trade Organization (WTO), 303–304

• Yes Men
• background, 299–300
• Barbie Liberation Organization (BLO), 300–301
• Bush parody site, 304, 310
• as clownery, 305
• documentary The Yes Men Are Revolting, 307
• Dow Chemical/Union Carbide India, 304–305, 312–313
• Hurricane Katrina one-year anniversary, New Orleans, 295–296
• interview with, 307–313
• ®^TMark, 301–302, 309
• SimCopter hack, 300, 308, 309
• University of Iowa, 307–308
• WTO/GATT, 303–304
• Yiannopoulos, Milo, 1, 35, 183
• Yonge, Israel, 285–286

• Zelizer, Barbie, 342
• Zero Hedge, 365
• Zero-sum games, 173, 174
• Zhang, Yini, 168–169
• Žižek, Slavoj, 21
• Zuckerberg, Mark, 124–125, 138